The " Apcet II " hearing ended today after both parties made their final oral submissions at the Putrajaya Court of Appeal.

Appeals Court judge Wan Adnan Muhamad reserved judgment to be delivered at a later date, yet to fixed.

The Apcet II trial is a RM35 million suit filed by 36 activists and 10 journalists against the government over their wrongful detention at the Second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor on Nov 11, 1996.

apcet 2 hearing day 3 080306 ranjit singh Lawyer Ranjit Singh ( left ), for the plaintiff, said that the judge adjourned the trial after hearing arguments from both sides.

"The judge will fix date us when he is ready to deliver the judgment," said Ranjit.

The defendants are former Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Datuk Ismail Che' Ros, former Dang Wangi OCPD Zainal Abidin Ali, investigations officer Chief Insp Tengku Hamzah Tengku Abdullah and the Malaysian government.

Among the 36 plaintiffs are:

1) Then PKR vice-president Dr Sanusi Othman

2) PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali

3) Batu parliamentarian Tian Chua

4) Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran

5) Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan

6) Malaysian Trade Union Congress president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamad.

Mob, aggressive and abusive

Other high-profile plaintiffs include Subang MP R Sivarasa, Parti Sosialis Malaysia president Dr Nasir Hashim and former New Era College principal Dr Kua Kia Soong.

In the suit filed on Nov 9, 1998, the plaintiffs argued that they were unlawfully arrested and detained and when a mob of Umno stormed the conference and confronted the plaintiffs, behaving aggressively and abusively.

apcet ii hearing mob photos 100306 sequence Deputy public prosecutor Iznan Ishak and senior federal council Khairul Nizam Kamal represented the government.

In 1996, 60 participants were arrested at Asia Hotel during the opening of the conference, along with seven Umno youth demonstrators.

Four hundred members from the Umno Youth-led BBRM (or Malaysian People's Action Front) broke down the doors of the conference halls, threw chairs and verbally and physically abused the participants.

The conference was held to discuss human rights abuses in East Timor and its struggle for independence from Indonesia.